


Pick Your Battles (But Never Stop Fighting)

by Lazy8



Series: Bad Things Happen Bingo [22]
Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: Bleeding Out, Bullying, Canon Compliant if You Really Squint, Gen, Military Oppression, Near Death Experiences
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-02
Updated: 2021-01-02
Packaged: 2021-03-11 01:01:26
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,404
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28496490
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lazy8/pseuds/Lazy8
Summary: Katara will never turn her back on people who need her... but sometimesshe'sthe one who ends up needing help.
Relationships: Katara & Suki (Avatar)
Series: Bad Things Happen Bingo [22]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1846456
Comments: 5
Kudos: 25
Collections: Bad Things Happen Bingo





	Pick Your Battles (But Never Stop Fighting)

**Author's Note:**

> **Prompt:** Bleeding Out  
>  **Hurt Character:** Katara  
>  **Comforting Character(s):** Suki

It was _supposed_ to be just a routine supply run.

The consensus was that Katara and Suki should be the ones to go. Aang and Zuko would be too easily recognized, Toph couldn't read the list, and Sokka would come back with only half the items they needed and a whole bag of stuff they _didn't_. In the end, the choice had been pretty obvious.

At least it was far from the worst arrangement they could have come up with: Suki was good company, and the two of them chatted easily as they made their way to the market.

"Soooooo… my brother, huh?" Katara nudged Suki playfully with her elbow.

"Hey, your brother is cute." Suki raised an eyebrow in a way that was incredibly suggestive, and Katara made a face, immediately sorry that she had asked. A few seconds later, they both broke down laughing.

"I'm glad we got you back, Suki," Katara confessed once she was able to catch her breath, wiping tears of mirth out of her eyes. "It's good to have another girl in the group, and… well, Sokka told me what you did at the Boiling Rock. It was almost impossible to get him to shut up about it," she added under her breath.

Suki snorted, but didn't otherwise respond: they had reached the market.

"Right." Suki held up the list. "You get meat, I'll get vegetables?"

"Sounds good to me."

After a brief consultation, they tore the list in half. Katara had the meat in addition to sewing and medical supplies. Suki had vegetables, rice, spices, and supplies for weapons maintenance.

The market was a small one, but it did seem to have everything they needed, and Katara had no trouble filling her bag. She was just about ready to check the last item off her list when the commotion started.

Looking to see what was causing the noise, she was greeted by the sight of a group of soldiers harassing one of the merchants: a sweet old woman who'd told Katara stories about her grandchildren as she'd measured out a jar of burn cream. Narrowing her eyes, Katara pulled away from the butcher and crept closer to listen in.

"…evaded your taxes one too many times. It's time to pay up."

"Please, have mercy." The old woman was wringing her hands. "My granddaughter is sick, I can't afford—"

"Oh, a 'sick granddaughter', is it? Do you think we've never heard _that_ one before?" The leader spat on the ground at his feet. "Do you think this war comes free, is that it? You have a duty to your country, and for that matter your granddaughter does too. So you can either pay up what you owe, or we can take it out of your—"

"Hey!"

Soldiers and grandmother alike all turned their heads in surprise—as did many of the other merchants as well. Katara stepped forward, fists clenched. Though she had spoken without thinking, there was no way she was going to back down now.

"She just told you she had a sick granddaughter!" Katara continued, and even though she _knew_ that she was attracting far too much attention, in the heat of the moment, she couldn't particularly bring herself to _care_. "Don't you even care for your _own_ people? Do you people really have no compassion at all?"

One of the soldiers straightened up with a scowl. "This is no concern of yours, girl. I'd move along and mind my own business if I were you."

"If you're going to push around civilians, I'm _making_ it my business." Katara met his scowl with one of her own. "Or are you too afraid to pick on someone who can actually fight _back?_ "

A different soldier—the ringleader, she remembered—pinched the bridge of his nose. "Restrain her," he ordered. "We can deal with _her_ after we finish our business here."

And that was when Katara finally realized her fatal mistake: she _couldn't_ fight back. She didn't carry her waterskin when she was trying to pass for a Fire Nation citizen; it would look too suspicious. There was no other water within easy reach, and even if there were, actually making _use_ of it would mean blowing her cover.

So, she did the only thing she _could_ do, dropped her bag, and turned to run, hoping she could at least goad the soldiers into chasing _her_ rather than continuing to extort the kind old woman. She hadn't taken three steps before she was tackled to the ground.

"Hey! Hey, let me go!" Struggle and thrash as she might, though, there was no throwing off the weight that pressed her against the ground or the grip that pinned her arms behind her back. "You monsters!"

"You really didn't think this through, did you?" Roughly, she was yanked to her feet, her hands bound behind her with coarse rope.

"I'd quit struggling if I were you," one of the other soldiers advised, a cruel gleam in his eye. " _We're_ just doing our job, but the prison guards won't be nearly so lenient if you give them this kind of trouble."

_Prison guards_. So, they intended to send her to jail. This was _not_ good.

Katara had heard stories—from Suki, from her father, and to a lesser extent from Sokka—about what Fire Nation prisons were like. She'd seen with her own eyes how the Fire Nation treated prisoners of war when she'd gone onto that prison barge to rescue Haru. If she got herself locked up now, there was no guarantee that she'd be able to break herself out—or that anyone _else_ would be able to come for her in time.

Right at the moment, though, that wasn't even her primary concern. No matter how much she struggled, the soldiers who were holding her had her thoroughly restrained, and Katara could do nothing but watch as the rest began confiscating the entirety of the old woman's wares. Though most of the other merchants in the market looked uncomfortable and averted their eyes, not a single one of them made a move to intervene.

"Hey!" she shouted. " _Hey!_ All of you! Are you just going to stand there and _let_ this happen? How can you let them treat you like this? Next time it could just as easily be one of you!"

Her pleading was interrupted by a ringing spike of pain in the side of her head as one of the soldiers cuffed her. "Shut your mouth, girl. Unless you want to make things even worse for yourself than they already are."

The others, meanwhile, had already finished clearing out anything of value. Once they had all the merchandise packed away, one of them stepped back and shot a stream of fire into what was left of the old woman's stall.

The old woman had tears on her face as she stepped back away from the flames. Still, no one acted. They all just stood there and looked away as someone's whole livelihood burned.

"What is _wrong_ with all of you?" Katara shouted, tears in her eyes. "Don't you even _care?_ " A few of the people around her began to squirm uncomfortably when she made eye contact, but no one answered, and no one acted.

"That's enough out of you." One of the soldiers who was holding her shook her roughly. "I hear that in prison they'll teach you some manners—"

That was as far as he got before Suki slammed into him from the side.

In one smooth motion, she liberated one of the soldiers' knives from its sheath and sliced through the rope that bound Katara's hands. "You _really_ couldn't have picked a better time to try to start a revolution?" she asked as she grabbed the arm of another soldier who attempted to lunge at her, using his own momentum to send him flying into one of his companions instead.

"There's _never_ a good time," Katara retorted, sticking her foot out to trip one of the others. "We didn't get to where we are by waiting for a _good time_."

"Yeah," Suki dodged a blade, "but there's also such a thing—" she ducked a jet of flames, "—as picking your battles."

"Listen, if I'd spent my time 'picking my battles,' I never would have—"

She was cut short with a gasp as something slammed into her.

At first, there was no pain: only the shock of an impact. When Katara actually _looked_ to see what had hit her, though, she saw streams of red running down her legs that were definitely _not_ part of her clothing.

_That's my blood_ , she thought in a daze as the red continued to coat her skin and clothing, washing out any other color. _How can all of that be mine?_

Suki was shouting, but all of a sudden her hearing was fuzzy and muffled. At least the other girl caught her as she slumped toward the ground.

"Hey! _Hey!_ " Suki's hands were on her, pressing down on the wound, her own fingers stained red with blood. "Don't you _dare_ bleed out on me now!"

"S-sorry." Katara was about to tell Suki to keep fighting, not to sacrifice her own life for Katara's sake… but then one of the merchants jumped between them and the soldiers, dispelling the next fire blast that came at them.

They were fighting back. The villagers had finally decided to stand up for themselves.

Despite the faintness that was quickly overtaking her, Katara smiled. Once again, she'd managed to make a difference. They were fighting _back_.

"Katara." Suki's mouth was set in a grim line. "I have an idea, but I need you to hold on for just a few more minutes, okay? Can you do that for me?"

"M'kay." Katara was starting to feel like she was floating.

Grimly, Suki tied a bandage around the wound, wrapping it until it was almost uncomfortably tight, and then stood, scooping her up and slinging her over her shoulders. Katara cried out in pain as the motion jostled her wound, but Suki paid her no mind. Instead, she took off running.

It hurt. It was jolting and tearing pain and _agony_. Then, though, just as suddenly as it had begun, the motion stopped, and Katara was plunged into cool water.

"Heal yourself!"

Katara groaned. She didn't have the energy to heal, and her vision was beginning to grow dark. She closed her eyes…

A stinging pain snapped across her face. Forcing her eyes open, she saw Suki hovering above her, eyes wide. One of her hands was once more pressed firmly against the wound. "Katara," she snapped, though her face had grown pale. "Heal yourself. _Now!_ "

Katara almost cried, she was so tired and she _hurt_ so much. Even so, though, as Suki raised her hand once more, she knew that the other girl would not _allow_ her to rest, not until she did what she had to. The water began to glow.

"That's it." Suki had gone from harsh to encouraging, reaching out to clasp Katara's fingers with the hand that had been raised to strike her not five seconds before. "Just enough to stop the bleeding. Then you can rest."

She had no idea how long she was in the water; she just healed and healed and healed until she couldn't anymore. Once it became clear that Katara had no strength left to do any more, Suki was the one to pull her out, and then to dry her off when she couldn't make her limbs move enough to do it herself. Finally, though, it was over, and Suki left her wrapped up in towel and blankets, and for a moment they only let themselves lie there on the banks of the river.

"I'm sorry," Katara said at last.

"Hm?" Suki pushed herself up onto her elbows. "For what?"

"That was reckless. I wasn't thinking about what I was doing, and I… I put us both in danger because of it."

"Well, yeah." Suki shrugged. "But," she continued as Katara's shoulders slumped, "it was also the right thing to do. I'm sure those villagers won't forget how you helped them. Just… maybe make sure you actually have something to fight with, next time."

Katara couldn't help it: she laughed. There was nothing about this situation that was actually _funny—_ but it was still such a relief to be alive that she still found herself doubling over and wheezing until her stomach hurt and she had tears in her eyes.

Fortunately, Suki seemed to understand. Though she did not join in Katara's laughter, she did sit back and watch with a smile.

Eventually, however, the laughter died out, and Katara knew that they would have to go back soon: the sun was getting low, and the others would start to worry if they didn't return before dark. When she attempted to push herself to her feet, though, she was immediately overwhelmed by a wave of lightheaded dizziness, and nearly fell flat on her face.

"Here." Immediately Suki was at her side, steadying her with a grip on her elbow and providing her something to lean on. "You shouldn't be trying to walk just yet; you lost a lot of blood." Then, without warning, she bent down, gripped Katara's legs, and slung her once more over her shoulders.

"Hey! Suki, what are you—"

"You're in no shape to get back on your own. Let me know if you get uncomfortable." Suki turned her head just enough for Katara to see her wink. "Don't worry, I won't drop you. My girls and I practice this all the time."

"Just in case you ever need to do it for real?" Katara guessed.

"Exactly." Far from her levity of only a few seconds ago, Suki's voice had taken on a more sober tone. "Just hold on, okay? I'll make sure you get back to camp, and that you get back _alive_."

Katara was still feeling faint, so she only nodded and allowed herself to relax against Suki's shoulders. For so long now, she'd been running and fighting and running and fighting. It was nice, for once, to get the reassurance that this was no longer a load she would have to carry alone.

As Suki hefted her up and continued to walk as though Katara weighed little more than a feather, Katara knew that she was in good hands.


End file.
